40 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR 



I would we were twenty and with the three years of the Ecole 

 before us!" Always fancying that he could have done more, 

 he often had such retrospective regrets. He was impatient to 

 begin new researches, when a sad blow fell upon him — ^his 

 mother died almost suddenly of apoplexy. **She succumbed in 

 a few hours," he wrote to Chappuis on May 28, **and when I 

 reached home she had already left us. I have asked for a 

 holiday." He could no longer work; he remained steeped in 

 tears and buried in sorrow. For weeks his intellectual life 

 was suspended. 



In Paris, in the scientific world perhaps even more than 

 in any other, everything gets known, repeated, discussed. 

 Pasteur's researches were becoming a subject of conversation. 

 Balard, with his strident voice, spoke of them in the library at 

 the Institute, which is a sort of drawing-room for talkative old 

 Academicians. J. B. Dumas listened gravely; Biot, old Biot, 

 then seventy-four years old, questioned the story with some 

 scepticism. **Are you quite sure?" he would ask, his head a 

 little on one side, his words slow and slightly ironical. He 

 could hardly believe, on first hearing Balard, that a new doctor, 

 fresh from the Ecole Normale, should have overcome a difficulty 

 which had proved too much for Mitscherlich. He did not care 

 for long conversations with Balard, and as the latter continued 

 to extol Pasteur, Biot said, "I should like to investigate that 

 young man's results." 



Besides Pasteur's deference for all those whom he looked 

 upon as his teachers, he also felt a sort of general gratitude 

 for their services to Science. Partly from an infinite respect 

 and partly from an ardent desire to convince the old scientist, 

 he wrote on his return to Paris to Biot, whom he did not know 

 personally, asking him for an interview. Biot answered: ''I 

 shall be pleased to verify your results if you will communicate 

 them confidentially to me. Please believe in the feelings of 

 interest inspired in me by all young men who work with 

 accuracy and perseverance." 



An appointment was made at the College de France,^ where 

 Biot lived. Every detail of that interview remained for ever 



1 College de France. An establishment of superior studies founded 

 in Paris by Francis I in 1530, and where public lectures are given on 

 lan^ages, literature, history, mathematics, physical science, etc. It 

 was formerly independent, but is now under the jurisdiction of the 

 Ministry of Public Instruction. [Trans.] 



